Property tax default, Abraham: Citizens to be fined with interest, penalties by Finance Ministry

Thus states the head of the Kosovo Commission Association (AKK), Sazan Ibrahimi, adding that the central level was not willing to solve the problem of paying this tax to citizens.

The problem is that the central level did not solve this problem and has now passed the legal deadline for paying the first tranche of property, where citizens with automatism will be introduced into the finance ministry system, where fines and interest will be calculated, which will start at 10 percent and then 0.65 percent on a monthly basis”, Ibrahim claims.

“Now citizens from May 1st enter the MF system, where those who have not paid the first tranche begin to be fined with interest and penalties”, he adds.

According to him, even though it was promised citizens to forgive 100 euros, this did not happen.

You don't have the right to solve the problem, promised a lot, and in reality nothing happened. It was promised that a law would be made for citizens to receive forgiveness, but it gave them no hope that damage done to municipalities when it will be compensated. It was airly closed, and did not consult municipalities like Heedare after affecting municipal budgets”, Ibrahim said.

“With central-level actions, if the forgiveness of 100 euros is arbitraryly implemented, as the minister [of finance] has been declared, then municipal budgets will be lost by millions of euros and we as association demand that these losses be compensated”, he stressed.

Ibrahim adds that the demand of mayors is not to raise property tax bills and to be the same as the previous year.

The request of mayors was not to raise property tax bills and to be the same as in 2022. We have asked the prime minister [Albin Kurti] for a meeting, and one of the topics will be to pay taxes on property, pardon and compensation. The meeting is expected to be 15 May. We hope that the Ministry of Finance will make this compensation, that's exactly what we're looking for, and if that doesn't happen, then we'll see what will happen”, it's Abraham.

The MF, meanwhile, has clarified that the new Property Tax Bill has already been sent to the Kosovo Assembly, with which the payment of 100 euros of bills for 2023 is provided.

“We as Government only sent the new Property Tax Bill to the Parliament, which through a transitional provision allows for forgiveness of up to 100 euros of bills for 2023, but the Bill has not yet passed both readings in the Parliament”, it is said.

And we appreciate that, based on the Property Tax Bill, forgiveness applies to citizens who have already paid the property tax bill, and in the case of law entry into force, the payments they made were calculated as payment for other installments”, the MF concludes.

Paying property taxes in Kosovo could take place in two installments. The deadline for paying the first tranche is April 30th, while for the second tranche is the end of September.

Property tax is an annual municipal tax and is determined by the multiplie of property value with the tax rate. This rate is 0.15 percent of the total property value.

The increase in property tax bills occurred after the overall assessment of land and residential objects, which the MF has made at the end of last year.

After this assessment, property taxes for some have increased by 100 percent, and for some, the value of property has remained unchanged, as after the assessment has not changed. Opposition parties in the Kosovo Assembly have rejected increasing property tax.

From property tax, Kosovo's budget has an annual inflow of up to 40m euros.